The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Friday, July 29, 2016

The Sidney Ripley Mansion -- No. 16 East 79th Street

Before Henry H. Cook erected his massive stone mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 78th Street, he took steps to assure the exclusivity of the neighborhood. He purchased bought the entire block from Fifth
Avenue to Madison Avenue, 78th to 79th Street; and then slowly and
methodically sold off the plots of what became known as “the Cook Block” with
the codicil that only high-end, single-family homes could be built on the site.

In 1912 The
New York Times would recall “Not only, according to his idea, was the block to
be used for private homes forever, but the new houses were all required to be
of a certain type of construction, and he would not sell to any one who was not
able to or willing to improve his plot in splendid style.”

By the
turn of the century Manhattan’s millionaires had reached the Cook Block.In 1901 Sidney Dillon Ripley, treasurer and director
of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, commissioned Warren & Wetmore to
design a 35-foot wide mansion at No. 16 East 79th Street.It was the first step in what would be a very
long and possibly frustrating process.

On
January 11, 1902 the Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide mentioned that the
foundations were under way.More than two years later on February 13,
1904--at a time when substantial construction projects were often completed
within 12 months—the Guide noted that the house was still under construction. By July the interior trim was being
installed; and finally on November 26, 1904 the mansion was completed.

Warren
& Wetmore had designed a five-story brick-and-limestone urban home
reminiscent of 18th century London.The
neo-Georgian design featured a rusticated limestone base and columned portico
above a two-step porch.The red brick of
the upper floors formed a canvas for the white stone window enframements and
cornices, and bandcourses.A dignified
Georgian balustrade crowned the cornice, upon which perched four massive stone
urns.It slightly disguised the mansard
roof with its copper-clad dormers.

Sidney
Ripley had married Mary B. Hyde in 1886.Mary’s brother, James H. Hyde, was the principal shareholder of the
Equitable Assurance Society, where Sidney was now a high-level executive.The Evening World said of the Ripleys in 1905,
“[they] are well known in society.They
have given many entertainments and last year’s coming-out ball for their
daughter, Anna, at Sherry’s was the largest of the season.”

Mary Hyde Ripley in 1889, three years after her marriage. from the collection of the New-York Historical Society.

After
waiting three years for their new home to be completed, they would not live in
it very long.On the evening of Tuesday,
February 21, 1905, just three months after moving in, Ripley noticed a slight
pain in his abdomen; but gave it little thought.But later that night the pain was so intense
that the Dr. Joseph A. Blake, was called.

Blake
recognized the problem as appendicitis, but was seriously concerned about his
patient’s condition.He called for Dr.
W. T. Bull and they decided an immediate operation was necessary.The Evening World reported “The physicians
were amazed at the rapid advance of the disease, which appeared in a malignant
form.”

The long
operation in Ripley’s bedroom was completed at around 8:00 the following
morning.Almost immediately the doctors
were aware that peritonitis had set in.Two days later there was little hope.The New-York Tribune reported that Ripley’s condition was “extremely
critical” and that “The crisis is rapidly approaching.” Sidney Dillon Ripley died in his new home
later that afternoon, on February 24, 1905.

Ripley’s
standing in New York business and society was evidenced at his funeral at the
Church of the Heavenly Rest on February 27.Not only was the church filled with powerful businessmen and politicians
like Peter Cooper Hewitt, Chauncey M. Depew and Elihu Root; but his pallbearers
included Oliver Ames, August Belmont, and H. C. Deming.

Mary
Ripley left the 79th Street mansion, never to return.She leased it that year to Charles and
Gustavia A. Senff, whose country home was at White Stone, Long Island.(The New York Times deemed it “one of the
finest residences on Long Island Sound.)Others would lease the mansion over the next few years—like James W.
Lane who took it in 1909—but Gustavia Senff would eventually return for good.

Charles Senff
was related to the Havemeyer family—the Sugar Kings.He was a director of the American Sugar
Refining Company and, like his relatives, had amassed a fortune.He died at the Whitestone estate on August
23, 1911 at the age of 74, leaving his
widow an estate valued at approximately $11 million.

At the
time Mary Hyde Ripley was considering marriage to Charles R. Scott.It was most likely this that prompted her to
sell No. 16 East 79th Street in January 1912.The sale caught the attention of
real estate operators city-wide.“The
price paid for the Ripley dwelling is said to establish a record for the sale
of a private residence of that size on a side street,” noted The New York Times
on January 24.The newspaper added “It
contains a number of large rooms admirably designed for entertaining.”

The buyer
was recently-widowed Gustavia A. Senff.She paid Mary a staggering $400,000 for the mansion—about $10 million
today.Gustavia would be moving into an
exclusive neighborhood.Her neighbors
would include millionaires Stuyvesant Fish, James B. Duke, Isaac D. Fletcher, and
J. Woodward Haven.

Gustavia filled No. 16 with the priceless artworks she and Charles had collected.The paintings ranged from Old Masters to
modern masterworks and the Senff collection was well recognized during their
lifetimes.

The
mansion was the scene of Gustavia Senff’s upscale entertainments; like her occasional
hostings of the exclusive Thursday Evening Club.No hint of scandal or disrepute could be
linked to the address until she left New York in 1921 for an extended trip
abroad.

On August
16 that year the New York Herald reported that “Mrs. Charles H. Senff…well
known in New York society, has joined the list of Americans who have rented
historic English houses during temporary residence abroad.”The article said she had leased Cobham Hall
in Kent for the autumn; followed by Invercauld Castle in Scotland.

Gustavia
would not return for a year, and in the meantime would be living among
history.The Herald pointed out, for
instance, that “several British sovereigns have lived or been entertained” at
Cobham Hall.

While she
was gone she leased No. 16 to millionaire and mining engineer Edward
M. Breitung.She had barely boarded her
steamship when her tenant was arrested on September 21, 1921 following a raid
on a tenement house brothel.“Mr.
Breitung was alleged to have been in the apartment of a Mrs. Kifr, at 840
Madison Avenue, with two women when the place was raided by detectives,”
advised the New-York Tribune.

Brietung
escaped prosecution.On
November 10 the Tribune reported that his case was discharged after the judge,
Moses R. Ryttenberg, decided that “only persons deriving remuneration from the
violation” were subject to court action.

When Gustavia
A. Senff returned to No. 16 so did respectability.She stayed on until her death in the house on
November 15, 1927.

In April
1929 the mansion was purchased by Lewis Nixon, Jr. and his wife, the former
Sally Lewis Wood.Married in 1891, the
couple had an adult son, Stanhope Wood Nixon.Nixon had retired from the United States Navy the year he married Sally;
the same year that he designed three battleships—the Oregon, Indiana and the Massachusetts.He was now the President of the Nixon
Nitration Works.

Sally,
who included among her ancesters General Andrew Lewis of Colonial Virginia,
was a member of the Colonial Dames of America and the Daughters of the American
Revolution.

In the
fall of 1936 Sally fell ill.Her
condition did not improve and at 10:00 on the night of June 15, 1937 she died
in the 79th Street house.

No. 16
continued life as a single-family home until 1956.That year an interior conversion resulted in
doctors’ offices throughout the first four floors, with two apartments on the
fifth.Sadly, at this time the exterior
was altered as well.The elegant
portico was removed and the window surrounds drastically reduced, including the
loss of their handsome cornices.Although the lovely Georgian balustrade survived above the cornice, its
hefty stone urns were removed.

Among the
many doctors who practiced from No. 16 throughout the next decades, none would
draw as much attention as Steven Levenkron, a psychotherapist who specialized
in eating disorders.In 1981, began
treating pop singer Karen Carpenter who suffered from anorexia.

In 1979
the lower floor of No. 16 was converted to an art gallery, the Saidenberg Gallery,
the first in several to be housed in the space.Today it is home to the Bjorn Ressle Fine Art gallery.

Warren
& Wetmore’s once stunning neo-Georgian mansion still hints at its former
glory.And it perhaps makes us wish that
landmark laws had been in place a few decades earlier.